Back in 1958, archaeologists found a human skull in the Hell Trench of Borneo’s Niah Cave which became known as the oldest modern human discovered thus far in Southeast Asia. This 37,000-year-old cranium, dubbed "Deep Skull" by researchers, was originally discovered in 1958 by Tom Harrisson of the Sarawak Museum in Malaysia and studied by anthropologist Don Brothwell. A new study of the cranium by the University of New South Wales’ Darren Curnoe, however, points to views about the history of the region and the place in the evolutionary line the Deep Skull has previously occupied.
At the time, the Deep Skull was first discovered, the oldest example of a modern human skeleton belonged to a 33,000-year-old male, and scientists incorrectly thought that Homo sapiens directly descended from Homo neanderthalensis in Europe. This find changed scientific thought as it was 4,000 years older than the previous find, proving that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived concurrently within this particular part of the world – an idea which had previously been largely contested.
Brothwell’s original 1960 analysis of the Deep Skull concluded that it belonged to an adolescent male part of an early modern population of humans either closely related or ancestral to Indigenous Australians. This information showed an early influx of Indigenous Australians to the region of Borneo, and that Indigenous Borneans were genetically replaced by migrating farmers from Southern China some 3,000 years ago. This new study, however, suggests a storyline entirely different.
Curnoe noted that Brothwell’s analysis had been incredibly influential over archaeological studies for decades, yet had never been revisited. He wanted to see if a new study could provide any new insights to the skull after six decades of new information. His recent research involved the most complex analysis of the Deep Skull thus far, looking at its intricate features and comparing them to that of other skulls around the region.
This study provided data which connects the Deep Skull to the current, native population of Borneo, overturning long-held views about the region and agricultural history. Rather than an adolescent male, the specimen belonged to a middle-aged female and has few similarities to the Indigenous Australians. The skull has the delicately-built features and small size characteristic to the current people of northern South-East Asia.
This study challenges old ideas about the region. This skull was a key piece in the “two-layer” hypothesis indicating that South-East Asia was originally settled by relatives of the Indigenous Australians and New Guineans, who were subsequently replaced by the aforementioned line of farmers from Southern China. Curnoe’s study challenges this hypothesis, suggesting a continuous genetic line of Indigenous Borneans as opposed to the genetic replacement. This also suggests that the Borneans adopted the farming culture rather than were replaced by these migrating farmers.
"Our work, coupled with recent genetic studies of people across South-East Asia, presents a serious challenge to the two-layer scenario for Borneo and islands further to the north," says Curnoe. "We need to rethink our ideas about the region's prehistory, which was far more complicated than we've appreciated until now."
Read more about his 2016 study in "Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution."
Links:
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/borne...
http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/news/study-ancient-...
